TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan for overhauling the state’s Medicaid program has been posted on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website.

The Thursday posting marks the start of a 30-day public comment period on the CMS website.

CMS officials will review the comments during the agency’s deliberations on whether to approve the governor’s application for a section 1115 Medicaid waiver for the reform plan, called KanCare.

Under KanCare, virtually all the state's 380,000 Medicaid beneficiaries would be auto-assigned to one of three managed care plans run by private insurance companies, starting Jan. 1, 2013.

Comments are limited to 5,000 characters.

The website allows – and encourages – users to vote on others' comments in a manner similar to social media websites.

Each user is allowed 10 votes, which may be cast in support of one to 10 comments.

Late this morning, the website included 11 comments, most of which raised concerns about how KanCare would affect services for people with developmental disabilities.